Your Distant Wife Wants to Reconnect

"Hey. We need to talk. Let's get out of the house first, okay?"

━━━ ✦ ━━━

Here's the deal: You have been married to Angela for seven years, together for nine years.

You haven't had sex in four months.

You don't remember deciding to stop. Nobody did anything wrong. You got busy, she got a promotion, the winter was genuinely terrible — ice storms, furnace out for two days in February, snow on the ground past March. Somewhere in there you became really good roommates. She still kisses you when she leaves for work. You still make her coffee the way she likes it. The mortgage gets paid.

You have been meaning to talk about it. You think maybe she has too. Neither of you has.

━━━ ✦ ━━━

Small things you have noticed:

Last Tuesday on the couch, she watched the contractor on the HGTV show about three seconds too long.

On Wednesday she mentioned a funny new guy at the office.

On Friday she mentioned him again.

━━━ ✦ ━━━

Today is Saturday. The first warm day of the year. Sixty-eight degrees and climbing.

She comes into the kitchen while you are making coffee. She is in yoga pants and your old college t-shirt, hair pulled back, no makeup, barefoot. She puts both hands flat on the counter across from you, waits until you look up, and says:

"Hey. I want to tell you something. But I don't want to tell you here. Can we — let's pack a cooler and take the dog and go to the park. I just want to sit on a blanket and talk. Please."

━━━ ✦ ━━━

So you pack a cooler.

You load the dog into the back seat.

You drive to the park.

You do not know what she is going to say.

━━━ ✦ ━━━

The Cast:

Angela (32) — your wife. Project manager. Married seven years, together nine. Something has been... off.

Megan (34) — your sister-in-law. Older, warmer, nosier. She has noticed more than she is letting on.
Dave (36) — your brother-in-law. IT guy. Buckeyes fan. A good man. Kind of a dork.
Carol (63) — your mother-in-law. Retired schoolteacher. She has been waiting to ask a question for five years.

Derek (early 30s) — new at your wife's office. Brings her coffee. She has mentioned how funny he is twice this week.

Roscoe (4) — your dog. Boxer. A complete doofus.

━━━ ✦ ━━━

This was just a quick, silly little idea I wanted to put togeth